Posts Tagged ‘breakthroughs’

Nicolas Cole, Inc. (from INC magazine) Sep. 24, 2016, 11:00 AM (if you would like to have more detail from this article contact me and I’ll email it to you. Ed)

Success is a game of habits. In itself, “success” is a relative term, and so its “achievement” is fully dependent upon the habits you put into place that move you step by step toward the “end” you define for yourself.

To be “successful,” it becomes a matter of the routine you put into place for yourself. Whenever you are looking outward, for example, it is very clear the difference between those who create positive daily habits for themselves versus the people who let life’s waves dictate their day to day.

Remember: You are the surfer. It’s up to you to ride the waves based on where it is you want to go, versus letting them carry you where they will.

Successful people plan ahead. Failure to prepare is the act of preparing to fail.

Successful people do the hard stuff first. Lazy people have a knack for getting done all the things that are not true priorities. But when it comes to the hard stuff, they suddenly find every reason why they could not complete the task.

Successful people say no. If you want to go your own way, be prepared to piss a lot of people off.

Successful people invest in themselves. Both in terms of time and money, successful people see life through a lens of investment.

Successful people surround themselves with other successful people. Your network is your net worth. The true value of having a network is not access to “things.” It’s access to habits and thought processes you would otherwise struggle to create on your own.

Successful people study their craft. I blame school for this, honestly.

Successful people are accountable for their actions. Lazy people point the finger at others and make excuses for why things didn’t happen. Successful people own up to the weight of their actions and take accountability for their own shortcomings.

Successful people believe in themselves. Lazy people want others to believe in them before they believe in themselves.

That reminder comes along a little more frequently than I’d like. Yep, it’s a function of time. That’s one way of saying ‘age.’

We can watch relatively young-year-olds retire and within a few years look like they’ve been pulled through a keyhole. Then a 90-year old gets her college degree, climbs Mt. Tall As Hell, learns to play a musical instrument. What’s the difference.

Best I can tell it’s several things and I’m going to give you a list. The great thing is…you can start on the list now, any time, at any age. So, go ahead.

Give yourself an Attitude boost and chose to be a Fountain, not a Drain.

Read, educate yourself, learn something new every day, teach someone.

Eat right, exercise, walk, watch the sunrise and set.

Avoid the negative people, media, events. Just get the heck away from them.

Turn off your TV. See above.

Listen to the birds. You heard right. Watch them. You’ll feel better in about 7 seconds.

Decoding The Path to Success is about our personal quest to find the success we seek. There is a way. It is comprised of soft skills that equate to leadership. If I stand and deliver on those components it could be pretty sleepy. But…the message is delivered in the context of our Heroes & Role Models. They show us the Path.

The Path to Success always goes through more revenue, profitability, having a meaningful purpose for your business, managing change, motivating employees, taking action, developing and keeping employee attitudes positive and productive, and more.

As young boys in west Texas we had athletes for Heroes. Football and baseball players were mine. I knew all about them. Read about their games. I knew their statistics.

I tried to be like them on the playing fields. If they did things a certain way, then I tried the same thing. I watched them on TV…..all 3 channels!!! If I could just be like them, I thought, then I would be successful. It was simple.

And then,….Time happened. I wasn’t the athlete my heroes had been. I moved on.

Like all of us I piled up life’s experiences, acquaintances, and events. People moved in and out of my life. And…They left their impressions.

In one way or another I refer to those lessons today. Each of us has those experiences. Use them. Rely on them. Learn from your earliest Role Models. They help us on the Path to Success.

This poem rises to the top of my saved treasures from time to time. You’ve seen it. It’s a good lesson. But, sometimes we ignore the simplicity and strength of the message. The author is “Anonymous.”

“If you think you’re beaten, you are;

If you think you dare not, you don’t.

If you’d like to win, but think you can’t

It’s almost a cinch you won’t.

If you think you lose, you’re lost

(and it goes on from here with the last 2 lines being:)

But soon or late the man who wins

Is the one who thinks he can.”

It’s not a lot more difficult than that. Attitude. A healthy dose of knowing one’s Purpose/Why. They are the strongest magnets we can use. This is how we attract the life positive events we seek and they pull us into the future.

In the morning it will be Veterans Day and I will wish my fellow Veterans a good day. We will remember family and friends. My Dad and uncles fought World War II and Korea. Part of the Great Generation. Friends too many to count fought in Vietnam. And, of course, our current Iraq/Afgan Veterans.

It will also be a great honor to remember an old friend, now gone. Nelson Greene. We lost him last year. He was 90+ years old, WWII veteran, tail gunner on bombers over Germany. He told stories and jokes all day long. Loved to hunt. That’s where I first met him, on a hunting trip. He loved bird dogs. His Brittany Spaniel was of course named…Nellie. Both loved to hunt ruffed grouse, especially in his native West Virginia. He really enjoyed being with people.

I truly don’t think I ever heard him say a negative thing about another person. He might cuss the weather for messing up his bird hunt. He didn’t have material wealth, but man was he deep in people that loved him.

It would take considerable more space to list the lessons I learned from him from a few hunting trips. Too few. Lessons in caring for others, humility, humanity and so much more. He was a gentle man and a gentleman. He was short in stature, but he looms large in my life and always will. Take good care Nelson Greene. The hunting grounds are a lesser place for your absence. My heart aches tonight. In your honor I will go out soon and walk a long time. And think of you and thank you and look around the corner for a bird dog on point, or a cover that looks ‘birdy’. Thanks Nelson.

It’s not the years in your life that count, it’s the life in your years. A. Lincoln

(I wrote most of this a year ago (March 2014)when Nelson passed away and wanted to remember him again today.)

If information could change people, then everyone would be skinny, smart and rich. Books have been out there for multiple decades, but people don’t go to the information. If you want to move people you have to be strategic and experiential.Tell a story.

Aim for the mind, but go through the heart. People change minds and actions when you touch their heart vs. just give them information.

This was sent to me and I do not know the source or I would give them credit. More executives are steering away from ponderous powerpoint logic and lists of numerical performance data. The story attached to other information is getting their message across.

This is adapted from a blog by Gary Genard, July 2013. The message to you as a leader is inescapable. When we address our team we are giving a speech, motivating people. Improve your message with a story that connects to the emotion you seek to move.

Most managers/leaders feel that when they address their employees their job is “to convey facts and figures.” That’s not it. More accurately their job is meeting the needs of the listeners and achieving a lasting influence. This applies if you are delivering a speech to a general audience or delivering a message to your employees.

Employees and audiences will remember their emotional response to you long after the information you deliver has faded from memory. The retention skills of audiences are notoriously shaky, and within a week, listeners will remember as little as 10% of the “critical” data you presented to them. Yet if you touched them emotionally, they may remember you for a lifetime. Consider these examples:

JFK’s inauguration speech

MLK’s “I have a dream speech”

FDR’s address to congress to declare war on Japan… “A day which will live in infamy”

Don’t just educate; move your audience. Don’t inform listeners; inspire them. To do so means creating an emotional connection. Even CFOs must put financial information into context for the C-suite, to help these executives process the information in terms of company goals and initiatives.

No leader succeeds merely by possessing the best information. True leaders use that information to motivate and activate employees and followers.

There is only one tool that allows you as speaker to accomplish this task: It is you—physically, emotionally, and in the ways you demonstrate leadership when you speak. In tough times or good times, you are the message. It’s a formula for succeeding as a speaker that goes far beyond “conveying facts and figures.”

Give your audiences the emotional connection and leadership they crave, and you’ll be delivering a powerful message indeed.